Drapery traverse rod and pulley housing therefor



May 21, 1968 JOHNSON 3,383,733

DRAPERY TRAVERSE ROD AND PULLEY HOUSING THEREFOR Filed July 20, 1966 WW1] &

w alum l INVENTOR. KENNETH M. JOHNSON ATTOR NEYS United States Patent 3,383,733 DRAPERY TRAVERSE R01) AND PULLEY HOUSING THEREFOR Kenneth M. Johnson, Kensington, C0un., assignor to The Stanley Works, New Britain, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Filed July 20, 1966, Ser. No. 566,616 9 Claims. (Cl. 16--87.4)

This invention relates to drapery traverse rods, and more particularly concerns the means for mounting the pulley at the ends of such rods.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved pulley housing for drapery traverse rods of simple design which is inexpensive to fabricate and easy to assemble. Included in this object is the provision of molded plastic wheel plate constructed and arranged for being secured to the sheet metal rod without the use of conventional fastening means.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a drapery rod wheel plate arranged to be retained on the rod by a snap-fit.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out in more detail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereafter set forth, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a drapery traverse rod embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged exploded view of the pulley housing design of this invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view, partly broken away, of the housing of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the molded plastic wheel plate of this invention; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the drapery traverse rod comprises a pair of telescoping track sections 12, 14 at the ends of which are a pair of substantially identical pulley housings 16, 18. The traverse rod 19 is supported in spaced relation from a window frame 20 by means of a pair of end mounting brackets 22, 24 which extend into the end portions of the pulley housings 16, 18 respectively in supporting engagement the ewith. The end mounting brackets 22, 24 may be secured to the adjacent wall surface surrounding the window frame 20 or to the window frame 20 by suitable fasteners as shown. A pair of master carriers 26, 28 and a suitable number of drapery glide members 30 are mounted for sliding movement along the traverse rod 10 and a pull cord 32 is inter-connected with the master carriers 26, 28 so as to cause draperies supported in the usual manner on the carriers 26, 28 and the glide members 30 to be opened and closed as desired.

The pulley housing 16 comprises a front wall 34, a top wall 36 and an end wall 38 all integrally formed from a single metal stamping shaped and folded into the configuration best shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. As shown therein, the lower portion 37 of the end wall 38 is formed integrally with the front wall 34 and is bent rearwardly at right angles to the front wall 34 and upper portion 39 of the end wall 38 is formed integrally with top wall 38 and is bent downwardly at right angles to the top wall 36, the two portions being secured together without the use of conventional fasteners by an interlocking tongue ar'angement comprising the tongue 40 on the upper portion 39 and the tongue 41 on the lower portion 37.

The pulley housing 16 is provided with a channel section 42 which is shaped so as to receive the end of the track section 12 in telescoping relationship with the end of the track abutting a depressed tab 44 formed in the channel section 42, and the resilient detent tongue 46 disposed in an aperture to latch the track section 12 to pulley housing 16. Mutatis mutandis, pulley housing 18 is similarly secured to track section 14.

In accordance with this invention, there is provided a molded plastic wheel plate 50 which forms a part of the pulley housing. The wheel plate 50 comprises a generally planar plate portion 52 on which a pair of pulley shafts 54 and 56 are integrally formed to provide support for the main pulley 58 and the guide pulley 60. Pulley shafts 54, 56 terminate in free ends 62, 64, respectively, of reduced diameter which extend into a pair of apertures 66 and 68 formed in the front wall 34 of the pulley housing. Grooves 62a, 64a having diameters corresponding to apertures 66, 68 space the free ends 62, 64 from pulley shafts 54, 56-. The wheel plate is molded from a plastic material having low surface friction and exhibiting the properties of high strength and toughness coupled with limited resiliency and the capability to withstand mechanical stresses without permanent set, such as polyethylene. The pulleys 58 and 60 are also preferably molded from a plastic such as polyethylene to present low friction surfaces to the adjacent portions of the housing which they engage.

Integrally molded at the upper edge of the plate portion 52 is a laterally extending flange 70. Both sides of the flange 70 are slotted as shown at 72, with the slots being disposed at an angle of at least and as much as relative to planar plate portion 52 of wheel plate 50.

As best shown in FIG. 2, the top wall 36 of the pulley housing 16 is provided with a slot 74 of uniform width with the walls of the slot being perpendicular to the front wall 34 of the housing and being defined by opposed flanges 76 and 78 which are depressed slightly below the top wall 36 of the pulley housing. Depressed flanges 76 and 78 are each provided with a tapered end 80, 82 respectively to provide a mouth for the slot 74. To assemble the wheel plate 50 to complete the pulley housing, the pulleys 58 and 60 are mounted on their respective shafts and the slots 72 of flange 70 aligned with the flanges 76 and 78 of the top wall 36 of the housing and pushed forward until the free ends 62, 64 of the pulley shafts 54 and 56 are engaged respectively in the apertures 66, 68 of the front wall of the housing. In this connection, the shoulder between the reduced end portions 62, 64 of the pulley shafts 54, 56 and the remainder of these pulley shafts bottoms against the front wall 34 as best seen in FIG. 3, and the wheel plate 50 is retained in assembled position by a pair of laterally extending lugs 84, 86 which project upwardly from the bottom of the slots 72 to abut the inner edges of the flanges 76, 78 (see FIG. 3). Because the molded wheel plate 50 is formed of a plastic material such as polyethylene which has some resiliency, the free ends 62, 64, which are larger than apertures 66, 68, and the lugs 84, 86, which are wider than the slot 74, may be temporarily deformed to pass through the apertures and slot, respectively, and upon reaching their assembled positions expand to positively retain the wheel plate 50 in assembled position by a snap fit with the ends of the pulley shafts 54 and 56 fi mly secured in the apertures 66 and 68 of the front wall of the pulley housing. In addition, the resiliency of the wheel plate 50 coupled with the slight obtuse angle between the slots 72 and the plate portion 52 of he wheel plate, exerts a biasing force to tightly retain the wheel plate assembled with the pulley housing.

In order to secure the pulley housing 16 to the end mounting bracket 22, the housing includes a flange 48 extending downwardly from the top wall 36 adjacent the end wall 38 and flange 49 extending upwardly from the lower edge portion of the end wall 38 so as to define a channel in which the free end of the mounting bracket 22 may be secured. For this purpose, dimple 47 formed in end wall 38 engages the mounting bracket 22 to maintain the same in assembled condition.

Because the traverse rod may be adjusted in length to fit windows of various widths, the number of glide members 30 required to support a particular drapery panel varies in accordance with the width of the panel. Accordingly, it is sometimes desirable to remove one or more of the glide members 30 from the traverse rod 16, and for this purpose the wheel plate 50 is formed with an integral flexible glide stop member 88 which extends into close proximity to the end of the track section 12 secured to the pulley housing 16 (FIG. 3). The end of glide stop member 88 normally obstructs the end of the track section 12 and thus prevents the glide members 30 from being shifted out of the track section 12 during use. However, when it is necessary to remove one or more of the glide members 30, the glide stop member 88 is sufficiently flexi'ole so that it may be easily depressed from its normal position shown in FIG. 3 to permit removal of as many of the glide members 30 as may be desired.

As will be apparent to persons skilled in the art, various modifications and adaptations of the structure above described will become readily apparent without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A pulley housing for a drapery traverse rod comprising top, front, and end walls formed from a single sheet metal stamping, a molded plastic wheel plate forming a back wall of said housing and having at least one pulley shaft integrally molded thereon, an aperture in said front wall receiving and supporting the free end of a pulley shaft, said wheel plate having a mounting flange at the top thereof interlocked with said top rigidly securing the wheel plate in assembled position.

2. A pulley housing as recited in claim 1 wherein the top wall has a rearwardly extending slot and the mounting flange of said wheel plate is received in said slot for mounting the same.

3. A pulley housing as recited in claim 2 wherein said pulley shaft has a reduced end portion forming a radial shoulder on said pulley shaft and said shoulder engages the rim of said aperture to space the wheel plate from the front wall.

4. A device as recited in claim 3 wherein the reduced end portion of said pulley shaft is spaced from the remainder of said shaft by an annular groove having the same cross section as said aperture.

5. A pulley housing as recited in claim 2 wherein said mounting flanges has grooves in the opposite edges thereof receiving the edges of the top wall forming said slot.

6. A device as recited in claim 5 wherein said grooves in said mounting flange are disposed at an angle of over 90 relative to the back wall of said wheel plate and biases said pulley shaft tightly against the front wall of said housing.

7. A pulley housing as recited in claim 5 wherein protruding lugs formed in the bottoms of said grooves engage a shoulder provided by the top wall to positively retain said wheel plate thereon.

8. A device as recited in claim 7 wherein the edges of said top wall forming said slot are depressed below the plane of the top wall.

9. A pulley housing as recited in claim 7 wherein a downwardly bent extension of the top wall and a rear- Wardly bent extension of the front wall form the upper and lower portions respectively of the end wall and said bent portions have interlocking tongues locking the same together.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,049,176 8/1962 Graber et al. l-346 3,118,168 1/1964 Arcuri 1687 3,172,145 3/1965 Miller 16--87 3,261,052 7/1966 Galland 1687.6 3,337,903 8/1967 Kenny 1687.4 3,345,676 10/1967 Graber et al. 1687.6

FRED C. MATTERN, In, Primary Examiner.

I. A. WONG, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A PULLEY HOUSING FOR A DRAPERY TRAVERSE ROD COMPRISING TOP, FRONT, AND END WALLS FORMED FROM A SINGLE SHEET METAL STAMPING, A MOLDED PLASTIC WHEEL PLATE FORMING A BACK WALL OF SAID HOUSING AND HAVING AT LEAST ONE PULLEY SHAFT INTEGRALLY MOLDED THEREON, AN APERTURE IN SAID FRONT WALL RECEIVING AND SUPPORTING THE FREE END OF A PULLEY SHAFT, SAID WHEEL PLATE HAVING A MOUNTING 